Sept. 3, 2025

Stories That Shape Us: Leadership, Legacy, and Life with Steve Mann

Stories That Shape Us: Leadership, Legacy, and Life with Steve Mann
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Stories That Shape Us: Leadership, Legacy, and Life with Steve Mann
Stories That Shape Us: Leadership, Legacy, and Life with Steve Mann

How do personal stories create connection, shape leadership, and build lasting legacies? Jon Goehring, Coach Jim Johnson, and Dr. Rehnuma Karim welcome Steve Mann — author, global entrepreneur, philanthropist, and legacy storyteller — for a heartfelt...

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Apple Podcasts podcast player iconSpotify podcast player iconRSS Feed podcast player icon

How do personal stories create connection, shape leadership, and build lasting legacies?

Jon Goehring, Coach Jim Johnson, and Dr. Rehnuma Karim welcome Steve Mann — author, global entrepreneur, philanthropist, and legacy storyteller — for a heartfelt conversation on the profound power of storytelling in leadership and life.

Steve shares his journey from a diverse global career to authoring Stories That Shape Us, a guide to passing down wisdom, joy, and love to the next generation.

Drawing on decades of experience, he reveals:

  • How everyone has stories worth telling and why they matter more than data
  • The transformative power of embracing your authentic self and clarifying personal purpose
  • Storytelling as a tool to bridge divides, build empathy, and inspire action
  • How leaders can foster team identity by aligning personal and organizational goals
  • Key strategies to identify, craft, and pass on stories that create meaning and impact
Whether you're a new leader or a seasoned professional, this episode offers timeless principles to harness storytelling for influence, legacy building, and authentic connection.

Resources Mentioned:
  • Stories That Shape Us — steve-mann.com
  • Bonus chapter & storytelling tools — download today at steve-mann.com.
WEBVTT

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This podcast is a proud member of the Teach Better

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podcast network, Better Today and Better Tomorrow and the podcast

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to get you there.

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You can find out more at Teechbetter dot com. Slash

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podcast stories get people humanity, which you don't get from data,

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and those are both things that people I think are

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desperate for in this age. Dream dreams and don't let

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people beat them out of you. Dreams are why we

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have spaceships. Dreams are why I have a pacemaker that

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keeps me alive. Dreams are why we make progress. But

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I think it's hard to really be a leader and

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tell you have, at least to some degree, answered that

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question for yourself. Who am I in relationship to the universe?

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Who am I in my family? Who am I in

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my relationship with God?

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Do you want to be a leader in a constantly

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changing world? Our emerging leaders look different, come from various

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backgrounds and from all different age groups.

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Leadership is changing.

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And it's hard to keep up. But the good news

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you can be a leader too. You can be an

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emerging leader. Welcome to the Limitless Leadership Lounge, a try

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generational conversation for emerging leaders. Come spend some time with

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us to discuss leadership from three angles. The coach Jim Johnson,

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the professor, doctor Renuma Kareem, the host, John Gering, a

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monthly guest, and you get in on the conversation on

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Facebook and Instagram, and be sure to follow us on

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Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Speaker. So come on in and

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make yourself comfortable.

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It's another week inside the Limitless Leadership Lounge. We call

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this a try generational conversation for you, the emerging leader.

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Maybe you've just gotten that first leadership position and you're like, WHOA,

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this is different than I expected. Leadership is something that

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we can get better at. And that's why we have

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this podcast for Because coach Jim Johnson spent decades as

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a leader in the athletic world, doctor Numa Kareem has

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also spent a good amount of time as a leader

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in the academic world and of her organization heroes. For all,

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I'm John Garing, and I like to say I'm just

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along for the ride and here to learn. Coach, you've

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also brought along. Speaking of learning, we're going to learn

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a lot from our guest Steve Mann today, So go

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ahead and introduce our guests and let's dive in.

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Yeah, I'm excited to introduce Steve. Steve was introduced to

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us with Nick Cudginson and his team member Evan Hacker,

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and we're really excited to have him. So let me

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share a little bit about Steve and welcome to the show.

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So Steve is an author, a speaker, a legacy storyteller, advocate.

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He's a global entrepreneur, philampartus and mentor. He has lived

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and worked worldwide, from Africa to Southeast Asia. He has

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founded and co founded multiple businesses in Charito Foundations. He

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is passionate about freedom, equality and storytelling as a tool

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for connection. He's dedicated to helping families pass down wisdom

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through personal stories. Steve has a new book out that

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we're excited to call Stories that Shape Us a guide

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to passing down wisdom, joy and love to the next generation,

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and says we're here to help young and emerging letters. Steve,

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I know you'll be a great guest for us. Welcome

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to the Limitless Leadership Lounge.

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Hey, thank you so much. It's great to be here.

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So Steve, I got to dig right in because I

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also have been a speaker for almost twenty years, and

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I know how important storytelling is not only a speaker,

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but certainly as a leader. In fact, I used to

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give my players of stories all the times. I used

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to kid them that I give them stories of warnings

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and examples to try to give illustrations to help them

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as they move forward in their lives. So tell us,

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can you be zero down to a couple keys to

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be in a more effective storyteller? Because I think as

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a leader, you have to become I call it the CST,

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the chief storyteller.

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I think number one is start. I talked to so

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many people that go, I don't have any stories. I'll say,

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let's take some periods of your life, like when you

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were just got married or you just started a business.

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Tell me what happened there? This happened? How did that

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make you feel? Appreciate? They're telling me a story. But

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people don't generally think stories, so they just think of

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parts of their life. So if I can get people

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to equate those parts of their life and start telling

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me a story, then I go, aha, you just did.

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And so I think that's number one is to realize

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you do have stories. I think number two is what

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I hear all the time is I don't have really

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anything important to say. I haven't done anything that wants

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to hear about. And so you just told me a story,

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and I find that really interesting. I'd like to know

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more if I tell you a story on this one.

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I had a good friend I don't say George Utah,

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and this friend of mine, he is a little lower

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than I am. Grew up in Las Vegas in the

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fifties when Las Vegas was one of the most segregated

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cities in the country, and he's white, lived in the

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white section, but when he hit sixteen, his father sent

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him over to work for an uncle in the black

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area of Las Vegas. He was the only white guy there,

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and his first reaction was, I hate everything about this,

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and I don't like my boss, and they're mean to me,

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and nobody wants to listen. They want me to do

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all the work. And he goes on and tells how

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he started getting acquainted with people, and pretty soon his

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boss was asking him for a ride home, and he

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grumpily did it. And then his boss said can you

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pick me up? And he grumpily did it. And then

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he said, when you come, could you honk so I

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don't have to get out of bed any earlier, and

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he's thinking, you lazy guy, how can I have you

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as a boss. They came to find out that his

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boss got a girl pregnant when he was sixteen, never

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could finish school, quit everything he was doing, and was

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now having working two full time jobs and some part

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time jobs and just to keep food on the table.

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His kids were now about college age, and he wanted

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him to honk when he came home because he had

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just gotten to bed and he wanted to get as

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much sleep as he can. He said, it just changed

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my whole view of him and everything going on. And

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I said, have you written this down anywhere? I no.

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I said, you know what, sometime maybe it's a grandchild,

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maybe it's a great grandchild you don't even know. They

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might read your story or hear your story and go, wow,

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that was my great grandfather. Listen to that experience, that's

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part of me. Maybe I ought to listen to what

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he had to say and be a little more open

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things so you can change things in the future. If

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you'll write that story down. He goes, I never thought

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of that. You do have stories, and you do have

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important things to share.

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And Steve, you're so right. I'm sucker for great stories.

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So I'm always connecting stories. When I'm in the plane

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or anything like, I'm talking to people and that enriches me.

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Instead of just putting.

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My headphone and shutting the world out, I try to

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connect with people, so that really helps. And you're so

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true right that stories are I think stronger than statistics.

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And while I'm also I'm a speaker, and i also

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give leadership training, and when I'm giving those stories from

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my life, I feel my audience is connecting more with

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me and.

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They're trusting me as a speaker.

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And many of those CEOs came up to me and

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said that those boring Instead of those boring datas, when

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you are telling us stories, we could really apply those,

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implement those, and we are becoming empathetic on those areas.

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So there are so many stories, and I'm as a storyteller,

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would love to hear your wisdom on what makes a

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good story. There could be stories that cannot reson that

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might not resonate, but there could be stories that really

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have impact.

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So how would I know that this is a great

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story to tell?

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I think that we live in an era, an age

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where we are bombarded with data we have stuff coming

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from the Internet, from social media. We're about to get

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swamped by AI, whatever that means. And we have no

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lack of data and people get that, but they have

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a difficult time trying to put that data in perspective,

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trying to evaluate it, trying to say what does it

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mean to a human being? What does it mean to me?

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And that's what stories do. And so you know, when

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you go to tell a story, I think maybe the

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basics down if you haven't done anything, But the more

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detail you can go into, the better. People want to

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find a way to connect that story. It may be

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where it happened, it may be who you were with it,

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maybe the smells. But if you can give enough detail

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that people can connect to the story, then they go, wow,

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that's great. I think the other thing is realize what

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stories do. Stories get people prospective, which you don't get

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just from data. Stories get people humanity, which you don't

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get from data. And those are both things that people,

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I think are desperate for in this age.

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Yeah, when I started my business a few years ago,

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I thought that I needed to be the authority in

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the field. So of course what I thought was hammer

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home the statistics and the book knowledge and tell all

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that on social media and make myself into this authority

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write it's blog posts about nerdy audio standards and stuff.

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But what I'm realizing now as my entrepreneurship journey continues,

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that storytelling is really the best way to relate to

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an audience. So for an entrepreneur who's trying to position

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themselves as an expert in a field, how do we

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leverage the power of storytelling to do that so we're

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not just regurgitating boring statistics but making it more relatable.

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Yeah, in the book, there's a bonus chapter that people

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can download, and it's how do I talk to friends

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and family about controversial issues? Because we don't and we

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avoid it like the plague, And so we talk about

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the movie we saw or what we had to eat,

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but we don't talk about things that are important. And

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in that bonus chapter, I go through some how to

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talk about people And one of the things I talk

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about is just what you said, data. We use data

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as a weapon too much. We don't use it to enlighten,

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We use it to bombard, to rebut and that doesn't

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go very far with people listening. They can find the

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data somewhere else. They don't want to listen to a rebuttal,

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but they don't often get understanding perspective. How does that fit?

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What does that do for me? Why? And so I

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think people need to be judicious about the use of data.

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Maybe almost ask permission to share some data, but tell

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why they're using this piece of data and why it

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came from them, what it means to them. Then that

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data can become useful. But if we're just using data

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to beat people up, we don't get very far.

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Good point, Steve, I got to delve in because our audience,

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we do have quite a few people that are in

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the entrepreneur and I know you started many businesses and

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also charitable foundations as well. You share a couple ideas

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with your experience how you're able to start and build

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a flourishing business.

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I think we're both a business and foundation. The starting

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either one, I think comes from a lot of the

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same resources, the same background. I think one thing you

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do is you listen a lot to other people, and

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that's where you get ideas, and that's where you get

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invited things. If you never talk to anybody but sit

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and read books, you're not going to hear about the

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ideas I was doing this, Oh, I wonder how that

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would fit with this, and then you go, wait a minute,

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I have something that might be useful in that. And

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pretty soon you're talking and you start a business, or

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pretty soon you're talking and you start a humanitarian foundation.

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But the first thing is you got to be out there.

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The second thing is you got to take some risks.

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You don't start a business or foundation without taking a

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little risk. Years ago, I used to consult and one

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of the things I would find when I was consulting

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with new inventors is the majority of them never got

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their invention to market because they were always trying to

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perfect it, and by the time they got it perfected,

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technology had passed them up. And I used to do

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some work with Tom Peters. I don't know if you

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remember Tom. He wrote Toward Excellence was the best selling

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business book of its hera. And one of the things

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Tom used to always say was ready fire, aim and

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there's a lot of truth for that. He would say.

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I found it to be true. Is we spend so

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much time aiming that we'd never get around to the firing.

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And sometimes you need to just shoot it out there.

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And learn from it. I think I don't like a

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lot of things that Elon Musk does, but when he's

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building rocket ships, he's not afraid to go blow them up.

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His view is that's how I learned to build a

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rocket ship. But I think we are so afraid it's

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going to blow up that we never launch it. And

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so the second thing I would say, you've got to

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take some risk. The third thing is it's going to

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be a lot of work. Whether it's a foundation or

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it's a business, they are not nine to five jobs.

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Maybe the other way around, they're more probably twenty four

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hour jobs. My role in life as I've chosen to

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have it as I am not a great long term

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manager and it doesn't really interest me. But I do

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like to start things. I like to get them going.

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I like to gather people around. And I guess that

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would be the next one is you're not going to

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start that business by yourself, and you are not the

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smartest guy on the block, and you've got to find

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the people who have the skills and the knowledge that

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you don't have, and your role and I think this

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is what leadership is, to find them, pull them together,

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get them to work together. Then you go places.

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Steve, I got to delve in a little deeper because

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I think that's so true. But so give us your advice,

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and how do you find those right people, because that's

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a real challenge.

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I guess the first thing is you've got to be

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out where people are. Tell another story. I had it

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terrific professor in graduate school, and he taught a class.

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It was called ethics, but it was really you would

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take an issue like environmentalism or healthcare or whatever, and

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you start you study all the pros to that, and

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then you study all the negatives, and then you'd battle,

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and you'd go through that whole semester. At the end

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of the semester, he said, what did you What did

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you think of class? I said, I really loved it

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always also really hated it. He said, why is that?

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I said, because I love being passionately devoted to a cause.

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But when I understand both sides, it's harder to do

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that expiled and he says, see, that's the role of

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the education, hated man, to keep the two sides from

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killing each other while you work out solutions. And I

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think that applies in finding partners too. If you're only

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looking for people who are just like you, you're not

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likely to find the best partners. You've got to open

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yourself up a little bit, look at what people are feeding,

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how they interact, how they do things. Many years ago,

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we used to run management evaluation classes down in Monterey,

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and you could pretty quickly tell who had more potential

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because you give them these complex tasks. And some would say,

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I don't have the tools. That's not been delegated to me,

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so I really put that to the side. Others would say,

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I don't have the tools either, but I bet I

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can find them and let me go here, I'll make

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this a little different and I'll change this. And they're

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the ones who we would pretty quickly identify as having

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a lot of potential. So when you're out looking for people,

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you're not just looking for degrees, in fact, degrees you

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can buy somewhere. You're looking for how do they interact

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with other people, how do they think, what is their mindset?

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What have they done that would show me that they

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can do that in the kind of organization I'm putting together.

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But again, it's open yourself up, look outside, find differences.

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But also while you're doing that, you also have to

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find people who can work together, and so we got

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to have the people skills that allow them to work together.

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They're not just in it for their own ego.

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Steve, I would like to hear your costs, because nowadays

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we are observing that the world we are not opening up,

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we are closing down.

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We don't want to We don't tolerate each other's opinion.

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If anybody disagrees with us, then they're the enemy. We

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are having these kind of attitude which is creating a

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lot of conflict all across the world.

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So both this part of the world and my part

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of the world.

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And while we are while I was going through your

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bio one thing, and you are into freedom, and I

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will dive into a little uncomfortable topic. I've always watched

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Piers Morgan and he had this both view on Israel,

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Palestine and on many issues.

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And recently it's no more than numbers.

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He were saying that the numbers did not change me,

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but the stories did. Fifty thousand kids killed or thirty

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thousand kids killed. Those things didn't change him. But when

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he saw a father being hopeful, sitting on the rubble,

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trying to find food and also giving peers Morgan some food,

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offering food and things like that. Then he saw the

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humanity and now his tone has changed. So my question is,

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from your point of view, how can we connect like

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this world with dystopian like Trump's government and we are

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kicking out the immigrants and things like that. What would

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be you are if you were in this position? How

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would you use stories to create a better world where

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empathy rules instead of hatred. So I'm feeling this like

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this is a different world that I have been living

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in right.

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Now, maybe a couple of stories that I had just

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come back from Africa and I had gotten up in

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the morning, Jetlagg turned the television on and the trade

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towers were coming down, and then after that all I

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started seeing was hatred for Muslims and Europes and the

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East coast of Africa is primarily Muslim and these are

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the people I've worked with and loved and took care

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of it. And I thought, maybe the biggest tragedy come

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out of this is turning a whole country to hate

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a whole group of people that they know nothing about.

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But we tend to do things like that, and it's

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a tragedy. It leads us into more and more problems.

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As we try to keep out immigrants, as we try

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to attack the universities, as we try to only accept

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people who look like us, we're the ones who lose.

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We lose that the differences that make things go. We

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lose the ingenuity that makes things go. I just I

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spent six years of my life, seven years in Africa,

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and love the people, love the place. And I just

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saw an article from Bill Gates, people saying and people

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wanted he's going to spend his two hundred billion dollars

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in the next twenty years, not leave it forever. And

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he yesterday said, people ask where am I going to

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put that? He says, I'm going to put most of

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that into Africa. Because when I'm in Africa, I see

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the hope, I see the energy, I see the creativity,

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and I see them taking ai and just embracing it,

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whereas we're looking at all the problems that may cause.

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And I'm going, yay, Bill Gates, because Africa has been

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that downtrodden, discouraged, written off continent in the whole world.

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And that's not the Africa. I know, that's not people.

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I know they haven't had the opportunities, but they have

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the ability and they have the creativity. And another just

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quick story. Years ago, I was on a kind of

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march for freedom from the train station of Boisiaho to

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the capitol, and when we got there, I was asked

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to give a talk, and in the talk I said, look,

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we're all here trying to look for a better, more

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open world. But you don't have to go start a foundation,

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you don't have to even be on a march, you

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don't have to write a book. If all you would

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do is next time you see a person of color

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or a different religion or different dress, and instead of

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turning around and walking away, go over and say hi.

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I think if we could all do that, the world

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would change. The world changes as people, as individuals change

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far faster than rules and government laws.

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So true, and I think being friends with people from

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all over the world. I have friends in eighty eight countries.

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One of my best friend is from Israel and she

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was in Mosad and we became very close friends. Both

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of us now understand each other's point of view and

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instead of the judgmental we are trying to find a

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solution of how we can unite.

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Don't you get angry when you get trying to people

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try to force you into your Antithemitic or your pope

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of stadium.

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And I've no kicked out of the university because I

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was just showing a documentary to bring unity between Palestan

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and Israel.

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My age.

401
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One of the students said that I'm an anti Semitic

402
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person and racist. So I have been kicked out from

403
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last year. I cannot teach at the university.

404
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The university and the students loss. I believe that I

405
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can be pro Israel and pro Palesigme. I don't need

406
00:23:17.799 --> 00:23:20.480
to be prot Yahoo, I don't need to be pro

407
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their governments, but I can be pro the people.

408
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Exactly.

409
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That's where we've got to find the solutions.

410
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And the leaders who see the people, not the politics

411
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behind it.

412
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Yeah, exactly.

413
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And I'm guessing that a lot of this, Steve, is

414
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why you do some of the philanthropic work that you do.

415
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Tell us a little bit more about that work that

416
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you do, and correct me if I'm making an assumption

417
00:23:44.279 --> 00:23:47.240
to tell us some of the reasons behind why you're

418
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so into philanthropy.

419
00:23:50.799 --> 00:23:55.519
I think it's not that this happened or this happened.

420
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It's a whole life of experiences. When I was a kid,

421
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I could to see I didn't I could I was nearsighted,

422
00:24:03.240 --> 00:24:06.000
and I couldn't play sports because I couldn't see them

423
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all unless it hit me. But what I could do

424
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is read, and I read voraciously, and I was struck

425
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by various things. And one of them I remember to

426
00:24:16.720 --> 00:24:20.400
this day was a book about Albert Schweizer and setting

427
00:24:20.519 --> 00:24:23.759
up his medical situation in Africa. Now I'm a little

428
00:24:23.799 --> 00:24:28.000
boy on a potato farmer night out. Africa is something

429
00:24:28.079 --> 00:24:30.279
on a map that you may or may not see,

430
00:24:30.680 --> 00:24:33.640
but it stuck with me, and I think I would

431
00:24:33.680 --> 00:24:38.440
ask questions and I would talk to people, and I

432
00:24:38.480 --> 00:24:40.720
started doing a lot of international travel and met more

433
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and more people doing more things, and then started after

434
00:24:44.240 --> 00:24:47.640
we sold that company, I started going with them on

435
00:24:47.680 --> 00:24:51.559
some of their trips and learning more about things around

436
00:24:51.599 --> 00:24:54.799
the world. And then I got into position where I

437
00:24:54.799 --> 00:24:58.759
could start doing things with some of those people. And

438
00:24:59.039 --> 00:25:02.720
I remember coming home home one time from this humanitarian

439
00:25:02.759 --> 00:25:06.319
trip to Africa and I was asked to go to

440
00:25:06.359 --> 00:25:08.039
a meeting and I didn't really know what it was.

441
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It turned out it was a meeting, a church meeting,

442
00:25:10.200 --> 00:25:13.799
and trying to convince people to go on senior missions.

443
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And I turned to my wife and said, hey, we

444
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can't do that with six depended children who cares. Want

445
00:25:19.480 --> 00:25:21.680
to go to Zimbabwe and see if we can make

446
00:25:21.720 --> 00:25:25.920
a difference with aids. She said, let's go. And you

447
00:25:26.000 --> 00:25:31.200
got to choose the right wife. And literally five months

448
00:25:31.319 --> 00:25:34.720
later we had sold everything we had and we were

449
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living in Zimbabwe, running around trying to figure out how

450
00:25:39.440 --> 00:25:41.960
we could make a difference. Zimbabwe then had the highest

451
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age rate in the world, about thirty eight percent of

452
00:25:45.200 --> 00:25:48.480
all adults were HIV positive. Back then, that meant you

453
00:25:48.519 --> 00:25:52.599
were dead in five years. And so we started discovering

454
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and then started creating programs to help teenagers, young people,

455
00:25:58.839 --> 00:26:04.480
young adults keep from getting needs. But I think it

456
00:26:04.599 --> 00:26:07.359
was a dream, and in fact, in the book, one

457
00:26:07.359 --> 00:26:09.839
of the things I talk about that people ought to do,

458
00:26:10.839 --> 00:26:16.720
whether that's young leaders or youth, dream dreams and don't

459
00:26:16.799 --> 00:26:20.119
let people beat them out of you. Dreams are why

460
00:26:20.160 --> 00:26:23.039
we have spaceships. Dreams are why I have a pacemaker

461
00:26:23.079 --> 00:26:26.799
that keeps me alive. Dreams are why we make progress.

462
00:26:27.720 --> 00:26:30.480
And so I go through exercises to try to get

463
00:26:30.559 --> 00:26:33.400
kids to what really are your dreams? First thing, they

464
00:26:33.480 --> 00:26:35.920
always tell you is what they think you want to hear,

465
00:26:37.000 --> 00:26:39.119
or what their parents want them to say. No, no

466
00:26:39.440 --> 00:26:41.519
that's not what I want. What are your dreams? Then

467
00:26:41.519 --> 00:26:44.480
they'll get maybe a little better. I remember one group

468
00:26:44.519 --> 00:26:47.400
on time, I said, maybe imagine yourself start naked on

469
00:26:47.440 --> 00:26:51.799
a Harley writing through the Sahara Desert. Oh wow, you

470
00:26:51.839 --> 00:26:56.160
mean you want what I'm really dreaming. Yeah. Then they

471
00:26:56.279 --> 00:26:58.880
put those up and I say, now do something about

472
00:26:58.920 --> 00:27:04.519
that makes it, makes something happen. Another story another professor

473
00:27:04.759 --> 00:27:08.440
at Resure School, he had a classwa had to write

474
00:27:08.440 --> 00:27:11.720
about ourselves, take all kinds of personality tests and intelligence

475
00:27:11.759 --> 00:27:14.480
tests and interview people. And one of the things I

476
00:27:14.559 --> 00:27:17.640
put in the book was that I'd like to climb

477
00:27:17.680 --> 00:27:21.160
Mount Evers. He was fascinated that by the professor, and

478
00:27:21.160 --> 00:27:24.559
he says, you must do a lot of climbing. I said, no,

479
00:27:25.519 --> 00:27:28.200
I don't climb anything. He said, you must do a

480
00:27:28.240 --> 00:27:32.319
lot about door stuff. No, I mean you don't do that.

481
00:27:32.440 --> 00:27:34.279
He looked at me and he said, Steve, most people

482
00:27:34.319 --> 00:27:39.559
who climb Evers go outside. So I took the summer off.

483
00:27:39.680 --> 00:27:42.440
The next summer and works as a waiter in Jackson,

484
00:27:42.480 --> 00:27:45.799
Hawaioming and learn to climb. I never made it to evers,

485
00:27:45.880 --> 00:27:49.519
but it didn't make any difference. But his message was

486
00:27:50.519 --> 00:27:54.039
take that dream and do something about it, even if

487
00:27:54.039 --> 00:27:56.960
it's just a little step. But you've got to take

488
00:27:57.000 --> 00:27:57.759
that little step.

489
00:27:59.160 --> 00:28:01.759
Great point, Well, Steve, let's tell me a little bit

490
00:28:01.799 --> 00:28:04.640
to share a little bit about for the readers for

491
00:28:04.799 --> 00:28:07.440
your new book, stories to shape us, and maybe just

492
00:28:07.480 --> 00:28:10.000
share one story from the book. So what was the

493
00:28:10.039 --> 00:28:12.440
purpose of writing the book and what are you hoping

494
00:28:12.440 --> 00:28:13.559
the reader will get out of it?

495
00:28:15.440 --> 00:28:19.799
I had written a little life history. It's pretty boring.

496
00:28:20.680 --> 00:28:22.920
He was here, or my wife forced me to do it.

497
00:28:23.000 --> 00:28:24.839
She said, all the grandkids need to have so they'll

498
00:28:24.839 --> 00:28:27.799
never read it. And when I looked at it, I said,

499
00:28:28.119 --> 00:28:30.240
you could read that, and you still have no idea

500
00:28:31.119 --> 00:28:33.359
what I believed, what was important to me, what I

501
00:28:33.359 --> 00:28:36.599
would like to pass on. So I started trying to

502
00:28:36.640 --> 00:28:40.880
say would I like to pass on? And I identified

503
00:28:41.200 --> 00:28:46.200
seven traits and four principles and three beliefs that were

504
00:28:46.240 --> 00:28:48.759
important to me. They're not necessarily the most important in

505
00:28:48.759 --> 00:28:52.359
the world, but they were important to me. Then I

506
00:28:52.359 --> 00:28:56.319
illustrated that each one of them with about five stories

507
00:28:56.319 --> 00:28:59.480
from my life. And as I was going through that process,

508
00:28:59.519 --> 00:29:01.599
I said, there are a lot of people I think

509
00:29:01.799 --> 00:29:04.799
who would like to pass on their own wisdom and

510
00:29:05.119 --> 00:29:08.160
to their grandchildren, but they don't know how. And so

511
00:29:08.240 --> 00:29:11.559
I started changing the tone of the book a little

512
00:29:11.599 --> 00:29:13.720
bit and turn it in a little more of a

513
00:29:13.759 --> 00:29:17.920
work book. Here's how you can identify what's important to you.

514
00:29:18.240 --> 00:29:21.079
Here's how you can identify the stories. Here's how you

515
00:29:21.119 --> 00:29:25.319
can pass that off to start discussions with your grandchildren

516
00:29:25.519 --> 00:29:30.480
and great grandchildren. And so I'm hoping that as people

517
00:29:30.640 --> 00:29:34.839
read the book, some will just have fun reading the stories. Some,

518
00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:38.480
I hope, will start sharing those stories and reading the

519
00:29:38.519 --> 00:29:43.000
book together with grandchildren. Some I hope will start saying

520
00:29:43.119 --> 00:29:46.079
he did that, but I did this, and they start

521
00:29:46.160 --> 00:29:49.599
talking about their own things. Some I hope will be

522
00:29:49.680 --> 00:29:54.640
motivated to go take action on something. But I'm hopeful

523
00:29:54.720 --> 00:29:58.119
that more people who read the book will identify what's

524
00:29:58.160 --> 00:30:00.200
important to them and find ways to pay.

525
00:30:01.880 --> 00:30:05.119
So, Steve, my last question to you, what legacy would

526
00:30:05.160 --> 00:30:06.640
you like to leave behind?

527
00:30:08.039 --> 00:30:13.440
Ooh, nobody's ever asked me that question before. I know

528
00:30:13.559 --> 00:30:15.599
some things. It's not going to be it's not going

529
00:30:15.599 --> 00:30:19.960
to be a fortune. It's not going to be people

530
00:30:19.960 --> 00:30:22.200
who care about who I saw, and when I talked

531
00:30:22.240 --> 00:30:27.359
to the legacy I would like to leave behind is

532
00:30:28.480 --> 00:30:31.039
you know, he tried to make a difference in the world.

533
00:30:31.960 --> 00:30:35.640
He tried to make things better. And if you look

534
00:30:35.680 --> 00:30:37.960
at the sum of my life and the things that

535
00:30:37.960 --> 00:30:41.440
I've done, people could say it was a good life.

536
00:30:42.400 --> 00:30:45.119
He blessed the lives of a lot of people, and

537
00:30:45.319 --> 00:30:49.359
his children and people around the world. If people could

538
00:30:49.400 --> 00:30:52.599
think of me that way, I'd be thrilled.

539
00:30:53.680 --> 00:30:56.559
I think that is called success. We try to measure

540
00:30:56.599 --> 00:31:00.000
success in so many ways. But it's one a little story.

541
00:31:00.240 --> 00:31:03.279
When my father passed away in twenty fourteen, I was

542
00:31:03.319 --> 00:31:06.680
in the rooftop just thinking about all the memories, and

543
00:31:06.720 --> 00:31:09.240
there were some few people who were passing by our

544
00:31:09.319 --> 00:31:12.119
house and they were saying, oh, but the person who

545
00:31:12.160 --> 00:31:15.640
lived in this house who passed away yesterday was really

546
00:31:15.640 --> 00:31:20.000
a good man. He was the most caring in neighbor

547
00:31:20.119 --> 00:31:22.720
and always helping each other. And that is when I

548
00:31:22.759 --> 00:31:26.440
started crying, and I felt that should be all our

549
00:31:26.640 --> 00:31:29.279
legacy to live a good life. And when I pass

550
00:31:29.519 --> 00:31:32.319
I leave the world, they will say that she was

551
00:31:32.359 --> 00:31:35.200
a good person. So I think that was the And

552
00:31:35.480 --> 00:31:36.759
you just said.

553
00:31:36.480 --> 00:31:42.000
That, yeah, My wife and I were talking to the

554
00:31:42.079 --> 00:31:43.960
kids once. We were saying, no, we don't want to

555
00:31:43.960 --> 00:31:47.000
get buried, weren't to just get cremated. And so one

556
00:31:47.079 --> 00:31:50.880
of my daughters sends these two little lawn gnomes and

557
00:31:50.920 --> 00:31:53.160
she made her husband fill a hole through the bottom

558
00:31:53.200 --> 00:31:56.559
so they were empty. He thought this whole idea was terrible,

559
00:31:57.519 --> 00:32:02.319
and she says, I want online to say she was nice,

560
00:32:03.200 --> 00:32:06.880
and it's pretty good. So I had them put online

561
00:32:07.079 --> 00:32:11.599
on the little hat. Him not so much. But the

562
00:32:11.640 --> 00:32:15.319
two of them together made things work beautiful.

563
00:32:16.599 --> 00:32:20.000
Ste if you mentioned it earlier, you mentioned the bonus chapter,

564
00:32:20.319 --> 00:32:22.920
and I know that on your website there's an opportunity

565
00:32:22.920 --> 00:32:25.160
for people to get the bonus chapter from Stories that

566
00:32:25.240 --> 00:32:28.039
Shape Us. Is that something we can still take advantage of?

567
00:32:28.079 --> 00:32:31.119
And where would we be able to grab that book

568
00:32:31.160 --> 00:32:32.200
and learn more about you?

569
00:32:33.279 --> 00:32:37.599
Yeah, the book is should be it's too Amazon now,

570
00:32:37.720 --> 00:32:40.440
but that takes him a couple of weeks, and so

571
00:32:40.799 --> 00:32:43.920
in two or three weeks it'll be available on Amazon.

572
00:32:44.839 --> 00:32:49.920
The bonus chapter, both in audio and in PDF, should

573
00:32:49.960 --> 00:32:54.119
be available on the website actually by the end of

574
00:32:54.160 --> 00:32:57.240
this way, for first next week, and you don't need

575
00:32:57.279 --> 00:33:01.640
to purchase the book to download the that bonus chapter.

576
00:33:02.519 --> 00:33:07.920
But if you go to Steveman dot com, that'll take

577
00:33:07.960 --> 00:33:11.440
you to the website and that will tell you some stories.

578
00:33:11.519 --> 00:33:14.079
It will tell you how to download the chapter and

579
00:33:14.119 --> 00:33:15.680
tell you when the book's available.

580
00:33:17.519 --> 00:33:19.359
Man with two ends right, Steve.

581
00:33:19.519 --> 00:33:23.920
Yes, Yes, te Ve dash m A n N dot com.

582
00:33:24.119 --> 00:33:26.000
Bev Man with an extra end.

583
00:33:26.000 --> 00:33:29.319
And ask one final question you don't mind, John, double

584
00:33:29.400 --> 00:33:32.039
rap up here, Steve. When I was doing research on you,

585
00:33:32.160 --> 00:33:34.960
one of the things that struck me very powerful because

586
00:33:34.960 --> 00:33:37.160
I do a lot of leadership talks around the country. Fact,

587
00:33:37.200 --> 00:33:39.480
I'm coming out of your way to Utah to speak

588
00:33:39.519 --> 00:33:43.759
to a business and I'm really big on clarity of

589
00:33:43.839 --> 00:33:47.799
purpose and personal beliefs. Can you delve into that because

590
00:33:47.839 --> 00:33:51.039
I think that's so hugely important for people, because I

591
00:33:51.119 --> 00:33:53.160
always kid John and reneum of the first person you

592
00:33:53.240 --> 00:33:55.599
got a lead as yourself, and so if you don't

593
00:33:55.640 --> 00:33:58.359
have clarity of who you are and what you stand for,

594
00:33:58.680 --> 00:34:00.480
then you tend to fall for anything. Can you tell

595
00:34:00.559 --> 00:34:03.759
then to just close here about how strong it is

596
00:34:03.799 --> 00:34:07.440
to have clarity of your purpose and personal beliefs.

597
00:34:07.839 --> 00:34:13.159
Yeah, And I think that clarity is always being clarified

598
00:34:13.599 --> 00:34:16.679
as we go through and have more experiences. When I

599
00:34:16.760 --> 00:34:20.239
finished the book, I went through it and I said,

600
00:34:20.280 --> 00:34:23.599
I can't wonder if there's any commonalities that I have

601
00:34:23.760 --> 00:34:26.960
in the traits or the beliefs or the principles. And

602
00:34:26.960 --> 00:34:29.480
I looked at the traits that I said, those already

603
00:34:29.559 --> 00:34:33.079
focus on. You can do something, make a difference, Go

604
00:34:33.159 --> 00:34:36.280
do something, take action. I looked at the principles and

605
00:34:36.320 --> 00:34:39.519
they were tended to be all around liberty and freedom

606
00:34:39.599 --> 00:34:43.440
and fairness. And I looked at the beliefs and they

607
00:34:43.480 --> 00:34:48.840
were all around who are you? Who am I? And

608
00:34:49.239 --> 00:34:54.079
trying to help people identify who they are? And I

609
00:34:54.119 --> 00:34:59.000
think that's a lifelong process. But I think it's hard

610
00:34:59.079 --> 00:35:02.960
to really be a leader and tell you have, at

611
00:35:03.039 --> 00:35:08.199
least to some degree, answered that question for yourself. Who

612
00:35:08.239 --> 00:35:12.599
am I in relationship to the universe? Who am I

613
00:35:12.880 --> 00:35:16.840
in my family? Who am I in my relationship with God?

614
00:35:17.960 --> 00:35:19.760
And I think in most of our cases we have

615
00:35:19.840 --> 00:35:22.519
the ideal and where we are. But if we have

616
00:35:22.639 --> 00:35:25.679
the ideal, you say, I'm a person who's trying to

617
00:35:25.920 --> 00:35:29.280
have this kind of relationship with God. I'm a person

618
00:35:29.360 --> 00:35:32.320
who's had trying to have this kind of relationship with

619
00:35:32.440 --> 00:35:36.000
the universe. I'm this kind of person who's had trying

620
00:35:36.039 --> 00:35:39.480
to have this kind of relationship with the people around me.

621
00:35:40.519 --> 00:35:45.920
We're part way there, and having that identity helps us

622
00:35:45.960 --> 00:35:48.920
do other things. One other just quick story. I had

623
00:35:49.239 --> 00:35:53.599
another brief professor Wise. He said before playing tennis on

624
00:35:53.679 --> 00:35:56.840
the top of the Empire State building, we play a

625
00:35:56.880 --> 00:35:59.800
lot better tennis if it's a twenty foot fence around us.

626
00:36:02.400 --> 00:36:07.199
And I think having identity, having work through our own

627
00:36:07.639 --> 00:36:11.920
beliefs on who we are, that's what gives us that fans.

628
00:36:12.039 --> 00:36:14.320
If we understand we are, we can play a lot

629
00:36:14.400 --> 00:36:18.920
better TEMs inside that boundary. That explanation, that's.

630
00:36:18.840 --> 00:36:21.599
A true great picture. I love that, and that picture

631
00:36:21.760 --> 00:36:24.639
was very vivid, but I still love that. As a

632
00:36:24.679 --> 00:36:27.159
tennis player and coach, I know you can resonate.

633
00:36:26.800 --> 00:36:29.639
Too exact because I want to play tennis, but I

634
00:36:29.679 --> 00:36:31.639
don't want to fall off the top of the Empire thing.

635
00:36:32.079 --> 00:36:34.559
That's right, Steve.

636
00:36:34.639 --> 00:36:36.239
We've learned a lot from you. A couple of the

637
00:36:36.239 --> 00:36:39.719
big takeaways obviously the power of storytelling, which is huge,

638
00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:43.159
and then also just you being a good person is

639
00:36:43.199 --> 00:36:45.079
another thing we can take away and how we can

640
00:36:45.119 --> 00:36:49.440
all strive to be that because it's ultimately what matters

641
00:36:49.440 --> 00:36:51.639
in life, right, so many of us are chasing things

642
00:36:51.639 --> 00:36:54.599
that don't ultimately matter in our final moments. Here tell

643
00:36:54.679 --> 00:36:57.719
us a little bit about what the future holds for you.

644
00:36:57.960 --> 00:37:00.559
Are you having any other book projects coming at, any

645
00:37:00.559 --> 00:37:03.599
more philanthropic efforts that you're looking to do, or are

646
00:37:03.599 --> 00:37:05.000
you going to kick back and take it easy a

647
00:37:05.000 --> 00:37:05.360
little bit.

648
00:37:07.639 --> 00:37:10.079
One of the things I've learned that I'm a total

649
00:37:10.159 --> 00:37:16.719
failure at is retirement. It's simply impossible. My life has

650
00:37:16.760 --> 00:37:22.920
been a series of almost reincarnations at different places different people.

651
00:37:23.400 --> 00:37:27.440
Is teaching, starting a business, starting a different kind of business,

652
00:37:27.519 --> 00:37:30.719
raising a family, going to school, going on a mission

653
00:37:30.719 --> 00:37:35.159
for a church, moving to Africa, working on ads. I've

654
00:37:35.400 --> 00:37:37.519
spent a lot of time in the Philippines working on

655
00:37:37.639 --> 00:37:43.800
human just poverty alleviation. And I came back from my

656
00:37:43.960 --> 00:37:47.719
last kind of away area, which was just in Las

657
00:37:47.840 --> 00:37:52.639
Vegas working on implementing creating a program to help people

658
00:37:52.760 --> 00:37:56.960
become more self reliant. Came back to Saint George and

659
00:37:57.039 --> 00:38:01.079
then it was okay, Now what I didn't really push

660
00:38:01.159 --> 00:38:03.880
it because at least in my life, those things have

661
00:38:03.960 --> 00:38:08.000
always just shown up. And in this case, what started

662
00:38:08.039 --> 00:38:12.000
to evolve was this idea of creating a book and

663
00:38:12.039 --> 00:38:15.719
a great book that could help people pass on their

664
00:38:15.760 --> 00:38:19.880
wisdom and help the people on the other side, the

665
00:38:19.960 --> 00:38:24.199
great grandkids, find that wisdom and find that perspective that

666
00:38:24.239 --> 00:38:28.159
they're looking for, find that humanity. And so I think

667
00:38:28.199 --> 00:38:31.760
for the next little while, it's going to be trying

668
00:38:31.800 --> 00:38:34.599
to get that book out to as many people as

669
00:38:34.599 --> 00:38:37.360
I can get it out to and help them work

670
00:38:37.400 --> 00:38:40.480
through the idea of what they could do after that.

671
00:38:41.159 --> 00:38:45.960
Who knows. I'm seventy six, so I'll give myself to

672
00:38:46.039 --> 00:38:50.239
seventy eight eighty doing that, and then we'll see it

673
00:38:50.280 --> 00:38:51.239
won't be retirement.

674
00:38:53.559 --> 00:38:58.280
They can imagine Steve dash Man as Tve dash M

675
00:38:58.320 --> 00:39:01.159
a n N dot com. To grab that book and

676
00:39:01.199 --> 00:39:04.960
to learn more about Steve's amazing work. Steve, I know

677
00:39:05.440 --> 00:39:08.559
we don't often get down to Utah, but when we do,

678
00:39:08.800 --> 00:39:11.000
we'll have to link up with you because you're doing

679
00:39:11.039 --> 00:39:14.199
some awesome things and well we certainly appreciate you. Thank

680
00:39:14.239 --> 00:39:14.639
you so much.

681
00:39:14.639 --> 00:39:18.440
That would be terrific. Yeah, yeah, now I'm in southern Utah.

682
00:39:18.559 --> 00:39:22.360
The warm part, the warm part, Okay, George is right

683
00:39:22.440 --> 00:39:25.599
on that, almost on the bad report, and it's a

684
00:39:26.159 --> 00:39:30.119
northern end of the Mohave Desert. And so it's red

685
00:39:30.199 --> 00:39:36.880
rock and mountain biking and hiking and canyons and let's

686
00:39:36.920 --> 00:39:37.440
get together.

687
00:39:37.800 --> 00:39:41.639
It all sounds beautiful and you're far out away from

688
00:39:41.719 --> 00:39:46.440
Skinwalker Ranch and all the crazy Utah stuff here. Yeah,

689
00:39:46.559 --> 00:39:49.039
that's so cool, Steve. Thank you again for your time today.

690
00:39:49.039 --> 00:39:50.360
We learned so much from you.

691
00:39:50.719 --> 00:39:52.679
Thank you so much for having me. It's been great

692
00:39:52.679 --> 00:39:53.519
to have the discussion.

693
00:39:54.119 --> 00:39:56.599
Thank you for joining us this week at the Limitless

694
00:39:56.719 --> 00:39:59.679
Leadership Lounge. To listen to this episode again and to

695
00:39:59.719 --> 00:40:03.679
find previous episodes, check us out on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,

696
00:40:03.880 --> 00:40:06.280
and spreagare. You can also get in on the conversation

697
00:40:06.480 --> 00:40:09.239
find us on Facebook and Instagram. Then tell three of

698
00:40:09.280 --> 00:40:12.519
your friends to join in as well, Coach Renuma and John.

699
00:40:12.559 --> 00:40:15.480
We'll be back again next week for another try generational

700
00:40:15.599 --> 00:40:18.960
leadership discussion. We'll talk to you then on the Limitless

701
00:40:19.079 --> 00:40:19.960
Leadership Lounge.